SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

Instead of turning back the tide of modern life, Ellwood centered his solution on
changing the law. He protested the “laxness” of divorce explaining that the increasing laxity in
administration of these laws and the court system contributed to an increase of divorces. He
explained the reasons behind these changes, “All divorce courts have two excuses for their laxity
in the overwhelming number of cases before them and the fact that public opinion favors
laxity.” 131 With the combination of these changes in the laws and the way that the courts
administer the laws, it was clear why divorces were increasing. Dr. Ellwood argued that if
changes were not made to divorce law and in the opinions of society, the divorce rate would
continue to increase until it reached fifty percent by the late twentieth century. Dr. Ellwood’s
predictions were valid. Dr. Ellwood concluded his statements by arguing that the instability of
the family was the greatest social problem of the day. He presented several ways that this social
problem could be corrected through stricter divorce laws, comprehensive federal laws instead of
state laws, and more emphasis on education.
A November 21, 1911, article in the Topeka Capital, found that rates of divorce in
Topeka were one divorce to every three marriages. This was a significantly high number of
divorces. Dr. Ellwood’s statistics from late 1910 showed that Kansas City had a divorce rate of
one divorce to every six marriages. The article in the Topeka Capital argued for uniform laws
that were stricter than the present laws. In 1910, Topeka’s divorce rate was one divorce for
every five marriages, but by 1911, their divorce rate had increased to every third marriage ending
in divorce. Women filed a majority of the divorces filed in Topeka in 1911. Of the 233 divorces
filed, women filed 196 or 84% of these divorces. In order to understand this increase in divorces
131 Ibid.
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